Critically Endangered
Jamaican iguana
Cyclura collei
Jamaican iguana is a lizard or snake in the family Iguanidae — Cyclura collei, recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to Jamaica.
The lizard or snake
Jamaican iguana is a lizard or snake in the family Iguanidae — Cyclura collei.
Range and habitat
The Jamaican iguana declined dramatically during the second half of the 19th century, after the introduction of the small Asian mongoose as a form of rat and snake control, until it was believed to exist only on the Goat islands near the Hellshire hills. A dead adult specimen was found in 1970. The Hellshire Hills area is the only area of Jamaica where this iguana is found.
Once found throughout Jamaica and on the offshore islets Great Goat Island and Little Goat Island, it is now confined to the forests of the Hellshire Hills.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
Like all Cyclura species the Jamaican iguana is primarily herbivorous, consuming leaves, flowers and fruits from over 100 different plant species. This diet is very rarely supplemented with insects and invertebrates such as snails.
In crisis
It is critically endangered, even considered extinct between 1948 and 1990. From within the safety of this environment, they are reared until they are large enough to survive in the wild and predators such as the mongoose are no longer a threat, a process known as "headstarting". This health screening has been used to baseline the normal physiologic values of the species, identifying potential future problems due to parasites, diseases, etc. That might threaten the population.
The U.S. Captive population doubled in size in August 2006 with the hatching of 22 Jamaican rock iguanas at the Indianapolis Zoo. In a 2021 assessment it was estimated that today there are 500–600 mature individuals and the recovery potential for the species is high.
Jamaican iguana is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Jamaican iguana, Wikidata item Q769627. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
